Awake

Prologue HPOV

I am fully awake. My green eyes scanning the perimeter; my senses coming alive. In the distance, I could hear the shouts.Pantig, I sink to the ground behind a stone wall  trying to think of some kind of plan. Feeling as though every plan would absolutely fail. I could feel beads of sweat running down my dirty body. Dried blood of my victims and my own underneath my fingernails, mixing with the earth's dry dirt. Bruises covering my body. I look both ways, feeling the tremors of vehicles coming closer. I close my eyes tightly wanting so much to fall asleep, to be safe once more, to know everything was normal. Nothing was normal. Normal simply didn't exist. I was in hell. I was alone.

I look over the stone wall seeing them in their black suits and in their cars. What do I do? They will surely kill me like they've killed so many others. I look around and pick up a rock feeling energy sparking through me. I stumble to my feet and begin running. "Air, give me wings." I pray, my mouth dry from the constant escapes I've been doing since the beginning. Wind flailing my long blonde hair all around. I hear gunshots in the distance and try to dodge them the best I can. I am too weak to fight back. I feel the dry ground beneath me as wind hugs my legs and pulls me to the left. I turn and see a cathedral in the distance.

Running to it, I grab the handle- pulling it open quickly.  Once inside I close the doors, grabbing an old flagpole to barricade it.

"Hanna." My name is called by an old voice and I turn panting, my face going pale. A man in a white suite with white hair, eyes clouded over. Blind. How he knew who or where I was, was beyond me. I was staring at our supposed Leader. "Hanna Greene? I am David."

"I know fully well who you are. How did you..." I pant running out of breath. "How do you know my name?"

"You're known a great deal throughout the world. You're the only one still awake." He replies lowly, a hint of anger in his voice. "You've survived so long, I am willing to strike a deal."  

"Is this deal to wake up my family? My friends?" I shout to him in a hoarse voice. Hoping I can spit fire at him while I'm at it. It doesn't work though, I should have known.

"No..." He says cautiously. David extends his cane, strolling over to me slowly. I look around for something else to use as a weapon. To my left is a matching flag pole holding our World’s flag on it. Even now, I wish I had enough strength to burn it.  I reach for it and hold the metal pointed end at his face, ready to jab at any second.

"D-don't come any closer!" I scream walking forward. He takes steps back.

"I don't want to harm you, Hanna." He says in a patronizing tone. "I want to help you."

“No, you do,” I chuckle, feeling dry venom spit from my mouth. I feel beads of sweat slowly rolling off my forehead. “The only thing you want is to harm. First you wanted to kill. Then you found out the number of corpses were too much and so, you designed a whole new world. If you kill me though, what does it matter? It’ll satisfy your yearn for blood. Right?!”

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have already done that. Put it down Hanna" he says, putting his hand against the metal point. The pole starts to increase in temperature rapidly. I get burned and drop it to the floor. There is no way I can take this guy on. "I'm willing to offer you a position in The Army." He smirks devilishly.

"The Army does nothing for it's people! I will never be a brainwashed dog." I spit on his face, tears swelling and stinging my eyes as people pound on the door.

"Then accept defeat, Hanna." David says simply, wiping the spit from his face with a handkerchief. Dabbing it softly. I straighten my back, taking a deep breath. I have no choice. My body is giving up, I can’t ask for any more help from earth. My mind, that will always prosper. It’s my largest weapon I have. When you are up against men with guns and knives though, your mind is not enough. I can only do what my Father did. What he taught me to do when the time came.

"’Four scores and seven years ago our fathers brought on this new continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal.’" I whisper, my voice breaking as tears stream down. Abraham Lincoln’s speech echoing the cathedral, every word ringing true even now. David's grin stretches and knowing I have now given up, he turns -walking away. Another loud bang is heard. "’Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.’"

Another bang. I close my eyes making my voice sound stronger. Louder.

"’We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.’"

Another bang. I hear wood cracking. I let out a whimper, balling my fists to fight back the fear.

"’It is altogether....fitting...and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-- we cannot consecrate-- we cannot hallow-- this ground.’"

I open my eyes, seeing the cross my family had prayed to so many times. I take a deep breath finding my ground. Raising my voice to drown out the echoing bangs and cracks coming from behind me. "’The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world with little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far nobely advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measurement of devotion-- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain,’"

The door breaks open. "Surround her!" someone orders. I look at all of them as they load their guns. They circle me, forming a barricade. "Ready?!" I take a deep breath screaming out the words, I swear I can hear my Father say each and every word with me .

"’That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom! And that government of the people!’"

"Aim!" The commander says, they all point their guns at me, their guns making clicking sounds.

"’By the people! For the people!’"

"Shoot!" He orders pointing at me. A gun goes off, I look at a tranquilizer stabbing my leg.

"Shall not...." Another tranquilizer. I grow unsteady, the room spins. My voice becomes quiet. "Perish....from the...." I fall to the ground as another one is shot into my leg. I take a deep breath as everything fades into a black abyss. . "Earth."